Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Elephant Song

We have had....a week. I've had no energy to post, and no pictures, news, or amusing stories to post about. But there is one thing that I've been working on that makes me smile when I think about it, and I want to share it with you. Several months ago, I was blog-hopping and came across this video of a Thai woman who does short video lessons to teach the Thai language. One of her sessions is teaching a children's song called "The Elephant Song." She says in the vid that this is like the Thai children's national anthem. In another video I found, a Thai-American said that if you sang this song for any Thai person, their face would light up with excitement that you learned it--no matter how badly you pronounced the words. So, I've made it my mission for our family to learn this song so we can sing it for our little one. We've all got the tune and the first line down--you'll see why that is not too hard. :) I've got the second and last lines as well, and working our way through it. If you're interested in the lesson, check out this first video. If not, I'll type the lyrics and the translation, and the second video is the song, sung by children, over and over. It's pretty cute! Enjoy!
PS: I would love, love, love to learn a simple Thai lullaby. If anyone ever comes across something like this, please let me know.



Chang, chang, chang, chang, chang,
Nong keeay hun chang rue plaow?
Chang mun thu thoi mai bow
Jamook yao yao reagwa ngooang
Mee kaw thai ngooang reagwa ngaa
Mee huu, mee thaa, haang yaw


Elephant, elephant, elephant...
Have you ever seen an elephant?
Elephants are big and impressive
Their long nose is called "ngooang"
The teeth under the ngooang are called "ngaa"
Have ears, have eyes, long tail

9 comments:

Catiejoyce said...

I can't wait to learn this song!! I love the fact that elephants are so loved in Thailand. I am using elephants in our girl's room. ;-) We are DEFINITLY going to learn this Thai song!!! THANKS for sharing!
PS I think I am becoming obsessed with elephants and elephant stuff. I want to buy everything I see!!!

Wendy said...

Oh, I have a Thai lullaby!!! We had international month at the school where I formally taught when I was waiting for Lily. We obviously chose Thailand as our country that year. A young Thai student from Yale came in and taught my students a lullaby that they then performed for the school. I'll have to dig through my old lesson plans and see if I can find it.

Catie...Lily has a beautiful flower painting made by a Thai elephant. It's huge (about 2 1/2 feet x 3 feet). There's a great children's book called Elephants Can Paint, Too (look for it on Amazon). Also, check out Elephant in the Backyard, a true story about a baby elephant in a Thai village.

Wendy said...

Lily just came up while I was playing this and said, "This sounds familiar to me!" She remembers nothing of Thailand, but...?

Catiejoyce said...

Thanks for the ideas Wendy!!! I will look for those books! I LOVE books too and elephants from Thailand only sweeten the deal! ;-)

Jeremy said...

oh, nice! we have the movie about the blue elephant Khan Klua. Our son used to watch that cartoon with his foster family, so we bought the movie in Thailand, and just found an English version on netflix. So cute! :)

chaniemom said...

Since my daughter was thirteen when we adopted her she knows LOTS of Thai children's songs. This just happens to be one that she's been singing around the house, lately. Feel free to contact us if you'd like to learn more. You could even skype with us so Penny could show you the actions that go with the songs. My e-mail is chaniemom@yahoo.com

a Tonggu Momma said...

I love that you are doing this! (What's so ironic for us is that I've been taking Mandarin for over four years now, only we learned two weeks ago that Mei Mei is from a Cantonese speaking province. Heh.)

Jenn said...

I'm noticing that I'm really drawn to elephant stuff too! I'm so excited to try to learn this song, and teach it to Jax! ;-)

woosterweester said...

Jen, this is too cute! Love that you're doing this and I have no doubt my girls will want to learn this song.:)